Salvation By Grace » Self-Audit

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. -Proverbs 16:2

Harry — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:57:25 +0000

People (we) are able to rationalize almost any kind of behavior as they strive to justify themselves (ourselves)
- God’s knowledge is a warning against such self-deception
  - Whitlock, L. G., Sproul, R. C., Waltke, B. K., & Silva, M. (1995). Reformation study Bible, the : Bringing the light of the Reformation to Scripture : New King James Version (Pr 16:2). Nashville: T. Nelson
The Lord alone can evaluate our behavior because he knows our motives
- The proverb is arranged in antithetical parallelism to express the only true evaluation of moral behavior.
- People (we) might seem “innocent” in their own estimation, but self-deception and rationalization make this estimation unreliable.
- The proverb suggests that such a premature opinion of oneself is naive at best and smug at the worst.
- The person may be far from pure when the Lord weighs the motives.
- The conclusion of the matter is that we deceive ourselves so easily and therefore cannot fully evaluate ourselves.
- God, by his Spirit and through his Word, provides the penetrating evaluation.
  - Ross, A. P. (1991). Proverbs. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (F. E. Gaebelein, Ed.) (1002). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Spurgeon – We must examine ourselves!

Harry — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:01:44 +0000

YOU HAVE BECOME LIKE US! – ISAIAH 14: 10

What must be the apostate professor’s doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear to hear that voice telling him that he is banished forever from His presence and that he will not be the recipient of mercy? “Depart from Me, you cursed; you have rejected knowledge, and I reject you.” What will be this wretch’s shame at the last great day when, before the assembled crowds, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed faith, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he is,” says one; “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another; “he rebuked me for cursing and was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another; “here comes a psalm-singing Methodist—one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life, and here he is!” No greater eagerness will ever be seen among satanic tormentors than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back door into hell. Watch out for that back way to hell, professors! “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”* Pay attention to your condition, and see whether you are in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give high marks when grading your own paper. Be honest and fair. Be gracious to all, but be rigorous with yourself. Remember, if you are not building on the rock, your house will collapse. May the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.

* 2 Cor 13:5

From Morning and Evening, June 26th a.m. entry

Proverbs 21:2-4

Harry — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:58:42 +0000

2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. 3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. 4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary:

We are all apt to be partial in judging of ourselves and our own actions, and to think too favorably of our own character, as if there was nothing amiss in it: Every, way of a man, even his byway, is right in his own eyes.
- The proud heart is very, ingenious in putting a fair face upon a foul matter, and in making that appear right to itself which is far front being so, to stop the mouth of conscience.
We are sure that the judgment of God concerning us is according to truth.
- Whatever our judgment is concerning ourselves, the Lord ponders the heart.
- God looks at the heart, and judges of men according to that, of their actions according to their principles and intentions; and his judgment of that is as exact as ours is of that

Verse 3: Here, it is implied that many deceive themselves with a conceit that, if they offer sacrifice, that will excuse them from doing justice and procure them a dispensation for their unrighteousness, and this makes their way seem right,
- We have fasted. Isa 58:3
- I have peace-offerings with me, Prov 7:14.
It is plainly declared that living a good life (doing justly and loving mercy) is more pleasing to God than the most pompous and expensive instances of devotion
Sacrifices were of divine institution, and were acceptable to God if they were offered in faith and with repentance, otherwise not – Is 1:11, etc.
- 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.”
But even then moral duties were preferred before them(1 Sa. 15:22), which intimates that their excellency was not innate nor the obligation to them perpetual, Mic. 6:6-8.
- 1 Sa. 15:22 – And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,and to listen than the fat of rams.”
Much of religion lies in doing judgment and justice from a principle of duty to God, contempt of the world, and love to our neighbor: and this is more pleasing to God than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices, Mk 12:33
- Mk 12:33 – And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25

Harry — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:15:32 +0000

12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary:

We have here an account of the way and end of a great many self-deluded souls.
1. Their way is seemingly fair: It seems right to themselves; they please themselves with a fancy that they are as they should be, that their opinions and practices are good, and such as will bear them out.
- The way of ignorance and carelessness, the way of worldliness and earthly-mindedness, the way of sensuality and flesh-pleasing, seem right to those that walk in them, much more the way of hypocrisy in religion, external performances, partial reformations, and blind zeal; this they imagine will bring them to heaven; they flatter themselves in their own eyes that all will be well at last.
2. Their end is really fearful, and the more so for their mistake: It is the ways of death, eternal death; their iniquity will certainly be their rum, and they will perish with a lie in their right hand.
Self-deceivers will prove in the end self destroyers

Truth For Life: Promise and Law *****

Harry — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:04:51 +0000

Galatians 3: 15 – 29
15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was i put in place through angels by an intermediary.
20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

From ESV study notes:

Gal. 3:16 God spoke promises to Abraham on several occasions, but probably Gen. 13:15 and 17:8 are particularly in view.
- Gen 13:15 – “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
- Gen 17:8 – 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
  - And to your offspring.
    - Paul knows that the singular (Hb. zera‘) can be used as a collective singular that has a plural sense (he interprets it in a plural sense in Rom. 4:18).
    - But it also can have a singular meaning, and here Paul, knowing that only in Christ would the promised blessings come to the Gentiles, sees that the most true and ultimate fulfillment of these OT promises comes to one “offspring,” namely, Christ.
    - Paul’s willingness to make an argument using a singular noun in distinction from its plural form (which occurs in other OT verses) indicates a high level of confidence in the trustworthiness of the small details of the OT text.

The ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham was spiritual, it was a spiritual inheritance
The scripture did not say and to your ‘seeds’ it says and to your ‘seed’ meaning one person who is Christ so that the promise looked forward to the arrival of Jesus
But people keep asking Paul “what about the law” Gal 3:19
From ESV study notes:
- Why then the law? The question then arises: If the law has no impact on God’s plan rooted in his promise, why was the law ever given?
- Because of transgressions might mean
  - (1) “to provide a sacrificial system to deal temporarily with transgressions,”
  - (2) “to teach people more clearly what God requires and thereby to restrain transgressions,”
  - (3) “to show that transgressions violated an explicit written law,” or
  - (4) “to reveal people’s sinfulness and need for a savior” (cf. Rom. 3:20: “through the law comes knowledge of sin”).
- All four senses are theologically true, but the last is probably uppermost in Paul’s mind.
- put in place through angels by an intermediary. Deuteronomy 33:2 talks about God coming from Sinai, where he gave the law, “from the ten thousands of holy ones,” so the angels were present with God on that occasion (cf. Acts 7:53; Heb. 2:2).
- Moses was God’s “intermediary” in the gift of the law to Israel (Lev. 26:46; John 1:17).
- The Mosaic law was part of a temporary covenant never intended to last forever.
- Now that Jesus has come as the true offspring of Abraham, the Mosaic law is no longer in force.
- Therefore, circumcision is no longer required, since it is part of the Mosaic covenant.
The law was added because of transgressions
The law exposes us as we really are
- We may give ourselves high rankings in the way in which we live our lives, we may have set up in our own thinking that which represents acceptable behavior and as long as our only reference is to ourselves and to our own code of ethics we can make our way relatively peacefully through life
- But whenever we come and expose ourselves to the law of God, it takes the lid off and shows us what we are really like down inside
- it shows that we are sinful
- it reveals that we are rebellious, pronounces us guilty, says we are under judgement, tells us we are helpless, tells us we cannot do a thing to make ourselves right with God
- and saw the law is proclaimed so that the promise may be understood in all of its beauty
- we are lost and in need of His divine intervention
The place of pronouncing God’s judgement on sin is a necessary place, it is an unpopular thing in our culture because people want to come to church to feel good about themselves they want to come to church and have a happy time even if it kills them
Puritan quote: “You cannot sow with the thread of the gospel before you have pierced with the needle of the law.”
The law cannot give life, because we cannot keep it. If we could keep the law then we would be declared righteous in God’s sight.
- But we break the law and what the law has done is to put us in jail so to speak.
- The whole world is a prisoner of sin and it has put us in jail so that the promise may be the key to our release.
  - The promise that God gave to Abraham that the just shall live by faith.
    - Judaizers were teaching that the law annuls the promise made to Abraham, but Paul says that its true purpose was to show that the promise was vital
It is our inability to keep the law which shows us the desireable, indispensable nature of God’s promise
When we realize we are in trouble, then the person throwing the rope becomes real important.
- Until we realize we are in trouble, you can dangle ropes from now until kingdom come and I won’t do anything; but once I realize I am drowning, then I will grasp and hold for dear life.
  - The purpose of the law is to show us that we are drowning and the promise is that we might take hold
    - The principal point of the law is to make men not better but worse, But by the knowledge of their sin they may be humbled, terrified, bruised, and broken … and by this means they may be driven by Grace so to come to Christ. — Martin Luther.
18th century revival in North America
- Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield
- unashamefully declaring to men and women that they were under God’s condemnation and when the spirit of God brought that home to their hearts and convicted them of their sin, their lossness, and the reality of an eternity without God and then they cried
- But men and women will not cry today under preaching that is preoccupied with self-image, self-worth, and self-love

Spurgeon: Questions we should ask ourselves

Harry — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:23:00 +0000

Questions we should ask ourselves:

Do I believe in Jesus?
Am I renewed in the spirit of my mind?
Am I walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit?
Am I growing in grace?
Does my behavior adorn the doctrine of my Savior?
Am I looking for the coming of the Lord and watching as a servant should who expects his master?
What more can I do for Jesus?